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THE STABILITY 



FREEMASONRY 



.AJST ADDRESS 

DELIVERED ON THE OCCASION OP THE INSTALLATION OF THE OFFICERS OF 

METROPOLITAN LODGE No. 273, 
F. & A. M„ 

NEW YORK CITY, 

ON THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 28, 1865. 



: ^ 



REV. F. C. EWER, 



GRAND CHAPLAIN OF THE GRAND LODGE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 



Price 25 cents. 

To be had only of Bro. B. Reed, 111 Chambers street. 



NEW YORK : 

H r CROKER, Jr., PRINTER 

No. 2 Hudson street. 



V 






,£i 



Entered according to Act of Congress by 

METROPOLITAN LODGE, No. 273, F. & A. M., 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District ot New York. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



New York, January 4, 1866. 
R.\ W.\ F. 0. Ewer: 

Key. Sir and Brother — The undersigned, Committee of Metropo- 
litan Lodge No. 273, tender to you, in behalf of their Lodge, their 
warmest thanks for the aid rendered by you in their endeavor to 
make the late Eeunion profitable and agreeable, and ask for pub- 
lication the manuscript of your address delivered on that occasion. 
Fraternally yours, 

B. REED, 
R. H. HINSDALE, 
CHAS. T. CHICKHAUS, 
WM. R. ELLIS, 
ISAAC MILLS. 



REPLY. 

New York, January 5, 1866. 
Brethren — I herewith place the manuscript of my address at 
your disposal. 

Fraternally yours, 

F. 0. EWER. 

Brothers B. Reed, \ 

R. H. Hinsdale, \ Committee of Arrangements. 
and others, \ 



ORATION. 

STABILITY OF FREEMASONRY. 



Most Worshipful Grand Master, Brethren, and 
Gentlemen and Ladies : 

In the discharge of the duty and privilege with 
which this Worshipful Lodge has honored me, and 
for which I return very cordial thanks, my remarks 
will take their tenor from an evident misapprehension 
of the nature and design of Freemasonry recently 
displayed in high and influential quarters. Not, 
indeed, that the foundations of our Order are so inse- 
cure, its internal structure so weak, or its designs 
such as to render it necessary for us to meet misun- 
derstanding with explanations, or, indeed, at any 
time to take public precautionary measures of defense 
against foes ; but that we may pay a generous defer- 
ence to our uninitiated friends who, in view of a 
recent startling attack upon us, may desire to have 
their favorable impressions of Masonry confirmed. 

We cannot expect immunity from that discipline 
of sunshine and storm which is the lot of all perma- 
nent and valuable organizations, whether political, 
governmental, or religious. Nothing, indeed, ever 
grew great and strong under uninterrupted prosper- 



6 

ity. The very secrecy of Masonry is calculated to 
create jealous}' and suspicion ; which, though they 
may long remain dormant, are ever in condition to 
break out into action. Indeed, as they surround us, 
now sleeping and now arousing, they unwittingly 
conduce to our growth. For, in the alternate 
periods of prosperity and adversity through which 
Masonry has passed, we see the hand of Providence, 
which will neither suffer her to become enfeebled by 
too long a continuance of peace, nor crushed, out of 
being by too long a period of opposition. 

There are brethren still living who bear sorrowful 
remembrance of days when to be a Freemason was 
to be an object of scorn — when the whole heavens 
above our order were lowering. Fortunately all this is 
very much changed. We see the change in the smil- 
ing faces of these friends who have come up out of the 
world in crowds to grace our festive occasion. Still, 
all is not peace around about us. Opposition has 
broken out in a fresh quarter. 

Not many weeks since, a vast and powerful portion 
of the Christian Church, after deliberate consultation, 
uttered its solemn maledictions against Freemasonry, 
launched anathemas upon all its children who pre. 
sume to enter our gates, and summoned those who 
are already within to come forth. The Roman 
Church, through its recognized source of authority, 
declares Freemasonry to be hostile to the true inter. 
ests of man, and infidel in its tendencies. I have 
characterized this as a startling attack. For, how- 
ever secure, brethren, we may be as an organization, 



7 

however conscious we may be of the purity of our 
aims, however calmly and defiantly we may gaze out 
upon any storms that can gather around us, how 
little soever we may be absolutely dependent upon 
public opinion, it is useless to say that it is not in 
the heart of men, and in the heart of Masonry, to be 
gratified in having the good rather than the bad 
opinion of the world. Our sense of justice, if noth- 
ing else, prompts this feeling. While, therefore, we 
are, professedly, not over anxious touching the opin- 
ion of the world, our true position seems to be, Most 
Worshipful Sir, not to remain, on the other hand, 
utterly indifferent to that opinion. Now, if you, my 
brethren, regard this attack from Rome as of no pos- 
sible moment because we are in a Protestant land, I 
beg to express the view that such judgment is quite 
erroneous. Rome and Protestantism are, indeed, 
hostile to each other ; but there are certain broad 
Christian truths upon which they both agree, and 
which unite them against their common foe, Infidelity. 
And this dictum from Rome is at least calculated 
to give Protestants an impression that their more 
vigilant ally has discovered something in Masonry 
antagonistic to those truths equally cherished by all 
Christians. It is calculated to confirm such preju- 
dices, as many Protestant clergy and laity have 
already formed against our Order. 

Nor is this all that tends to give the attack import- 
ance ; for we must remember that we are one body, 
and that what affects any part affects the whole. We 
must remember that Masonry is not local, is not con- 



fined to this city or State ; that it is catholic ; that it 
is everywhere, knowing no limits short of the limits 
of the human race. And when a Christian body, 
well knit, well trained to subordination unto the 
dicta of its constituted authorities — a Christian body 
holding under its sway the peoples of France, Italy, 
Austria, Spain, Belgium, Portugal, and Ireland, that 
is to say, nearly one-half of all the first-class powers 
on earth, and several of the minor European nation- 
alities, holding, also, Mexico, Lower Canada, and all 
of the South American continent, swaying the minds, 
moreover, of swarms of adherents which form a large 
portion of our own people — when a powerful Chris- 
tian Church, numbering no less than one hundred 
and seventy millions of obedient children, rises in the 
stern attitude of warning and command, its dicta and 
its opposition, are not to be despised. Masonry must 
be a gigantic and a growing power, or the Roman 
Church would not have troubled itself to arouse for 
the purpose of beating it down and destroying it, if 
possible. War is declared, and we have here the bat- 
tle of the giants. 

In view of all this, I shall ask your attention to 
several phenomena, in connection with Masonry, cal- 
culated to arrest the thought of its bitterest oppo- 
nent, and suggest to him the fact that Masonry must 
be so founded, and of such structure, as to render any 
attempt at its overthrow, or even permanent injury, 
utterly hopeless. 

I. The first of these phenomena is its duration. 
How will you account for this ? 



9 

Schools of philosophy have no perpetuity of exist- 
ence. Peculiar modes of social life last but for a time. 
The Spartan mode, the old Jewish mode, the Middle 
Age mode are gone. Even empires are formed, cul- 
minate, and die. But Masonry, as a realm and as a 
school of thought and truth, not only outlives them 
all, but is fresh and vigorous in every century. Now, 
what is the mortal taint which finally destroys all 
those institutions for the good of man, and all those 
schools of thought which appear for awhile on the field 
of history and then disappear? They are destructi- 
ble, and finally die, because they contain elements 
either of sin, of falsehood, or of mere relative truth ; 
that is to say, doctrines or theories which are true 
only relatively to the period in which they arise, or 
to the development of man's mind in their day. Carry 
that mind forward a century or two, and let it reach 
a larger development, and what was once accepted by 
it as truth becomes error, and is rejected for a better, 
itself to give place in time to a better still. Thus, 
mere schools of philosophy arise, wane, and go out. 
No class of men now pretends to claim that Con- 
science alone is man's guide as he struggles to live 
entirely right, and so there is no such thing as a 
Socratic school of philosophy now ; nor the Will 
alone, and so the Stoic school has had its day and 
died; nor the Reason alone, and so the Platonic 
school is no more ; nor the Affections alone, and so 
Epicureanism, the loveliest of all theories, is exploded. 
There is no such school of thought as the Gnostic. 
Look at the Schoolmen, too, who once divided the 



10 

thinking world between nominalism and realism ; the 
moment the Reformation touched their systems they 
dissolved. How will you account, then, amid all 
these fleeting schools, and systems, and empires, and 
modes of social life, for the exceptional duration of 
Masonry ? There is only one other like case in all 
history, and that is the Christian Church. Nothing 
seems able to exterminate either. All the differing 
cohorts of Time, coming in successively on the line of 
her march to attack her, Masonry seems to defy. 

I will tell you, my friends. There is one, and but 
one, way of accounting for this phenomenon. It is 
the way in which we account for the similar phenom- 
enon of perpetual duration in Christianity. Ma- 
sonry endures simply because she does not teach any 
truth which can be outgrown by man. Her main 
truths are not merely relative to any social mode, or 
to any given development of mind; but they are 
absolute, eternal truths. It is such alone that 
endure through all ages, and are fresh in every age. 
And not until those truths can be stricken from being 
can any foe of Masonry, in any age, or of any power, 
even though that foe wield the power of one hundred 
and seventy millions of people, attack her with the 
slightest hope of success. She shall stand while king- 
doms and empires shall form and melt around her. 
She shall stand, handmaid of Christianity, until her 
mission as such handmaid shall be fulfilled. She 
shall stand as long as a slave is left, a just right denied 
to man, a mob dare to raise its head ; as long as athe- 
ism, pantheism, or deism, in any of its forms, exists, 



n 

and until war shall sheathe its sword forever. When 
the kingdoms of this world shall become kingdoms 
of Christ, then, and not till then, will Masonry be 
no longer needed. 

II. The second phenomenon which I shall mention 
is the internal social and governmental structure of 
Masonry. Mankind may be of one blood, but there 
are vast differences in that blood. As a consequence, 
different social structures and different kinds of gov- 
ernment are needed and developed by the different 
peoples of earth. The Latin peoples, those nations 
namely, which occupy the southwest of Europe, and 
all of the American continent south of and including 
Mexico, demand autocratic rule ; and whenever they 
attempt republicanism, as witness France, Mexico, 
Peru, and all the countries of South America, except 
Brazil, are in perpetual civil turmoil. Their blood 
is such, and the instincts of that blood are such, that 
they can only nourish under a king or an emperor 
in State, not to say a pope in Church. The Teutonic 
races, on the other hand, chafe under a condition of 
permanent social grades in life. Their instincts are 
for freedom and equality. They, on the contrary, are 
uneasy under autocratic rule, and are only quiet when 
they have overthrown it entirely, or reduced the king 
from a power to a mere pageaot. Thus, national gov- 
ernments shade all the way along from autocracy at 
one extreme to democracy at the other, to suit the 
genius and instincts of the several peoples to be gov- 
erned. 

Now, the phenomenon is that Freemasonry, with 



12 

her peculiar government and her social structure, 
goes into all lands, and is accepted and beloved by 
widely differing people with widely diverse social 
instincts and governmental requirements. How is 
this ? The fact is, and the only explanation of the 
enigma is, that she is in harmony, not with a certain 
kind of blood — the Latin, or the Semitic, or the Slavic, 
or Anglo-Saxon — but that she is in harmony with man. 
She is not a partial, but a universal, fact. And what- 
ever is in harmony with man is indestructible as long- 
as man lasts, and its mission remains unfulfilled. 
Were she calculated to be the special favorite of a 
nation or a people, she might well tremble for her 
life when that nation falls, or that people merges 
itself into a higher and loses its identity. But I have 
met, Sir, within our mystic Avails, the European, the 
South American, the Persian, and the Chinese. 

A short time since I had the honor, in company 
with others of my countrymen, of visiting a French 
Lodge in this city. I was struck with the fact that 
within its walls were gathered the representatives of 
two national types of men, differing widely from 
each other — -the French and the American; that 
the two elements were forming a one new and har- 
monious band — a Masonic people — with no uneasi* 
ness in the breasts of either element ; all at rest, and 
satisfied with our social forms and our peculiar gov- 
ernment. And the thought struck me at the time, 
how benign was the influence which Masonry was 
shedding upon each type of man ; how it at once met 
opposite wants in both ! 



13 

For what is one of the wants of the European 
man ? It is, Most Worshipful Sir, a fuller and more 
practical recognition of the worth of a man considered 
as such, regardless of his title, birth, wealth, or any 
other accident that may have elevated or depressed 
him in the social scale of the world. Now what 
does Masonry do ? It quietly fosters the principle 
of equality among men. As the nobleman and the 
laborer pass through the inner gate of our temple, 
all worldly distinctions, all titles, save that of 
" Brother," drop off behind them as a cloak, and they 
enter and stand within upon the great level of a com- 
mon humanity ; then the laborer maybe seen advanc- 
ing and taking his seat as Master of the Lodge, and 
the prince of the realm sitting obedient at his feet. 

On the other hand, what is one of the wants of 
the American man ? It is an opposite want. It is 
a fuller respect for authority, less self-will, the check- 
ing of the instinct within him for insubordination. 
And Masonry quietly fosters the growth of this. 
For, if on the floor of the Lodge all men are equal, 
simply because they are men, free-born, and of good 
report, the Master sits in the East ruling his Lodge 
with absolute sway, commanding the respect, and 
enforcing the obedience of all his workmen. Thus, 
to whichever extreme, to the Empire with its per- 
manent social grades, or to the Kepublic with its 
freedom and self-will, or wherever between those 
extremes Masonry goes, she sheds a benign organiz- 
ing influence upon man ; and the moment man in 
whatever nation recognizes her, he finds her blessing ; 



14 

and not all the Roman Catholicism in existence can 
avail to separate her from the heart of man which 
hath taken her to itself. 

III. A third phenomenon which I would mention 
is the great witness of Masonry to a truth which is 
in harmony with man's deepest nature; and the 
peace, therefore, which she brings to him. There 
are certain dicta which pass for truths, and under 
which men act, but which give them no peace and 
satisfaction. Their prevalence marks the beginning 
of man's education. They may be in harmony with 
the surface of his nature, but not with its depths. It 
is the depths of his nature that will have satisfac. 
tion. It is a part of the development of man to find 
calm and rest by acting in accordance with truths 
which are in real, not mere apparent harmony with 
his nature. For error of any kind is not in harmony 
with the deepest nature of man, and gives him unrest 
rather than calm. 

Let me illustrate. When man begins his educa- 
tion in any department, the first thing he observes in 
that department is diversity. He looks, for instance, 
on the vegetable kingdom, and only sees manifold 
diversity — grasses, trees, vines, and sea- weeds, with no 
apparent unity and order, with no one law govern- 
ing the development of the whole. He finds no rest 
in this view of things. He then slowly passes from 
confusion and discord into a recognition of the essen. 
tial truth, the unity, namely, of the vegetable king- 
dom ; and not till at last he has learned the great 
secret — not till he thus looks upon the vegetable 



35 

kingdom as one vast being, with many members, 
but all guided by one law, vivified, if I may so ex- 
press it, with one sonl, does he find satisfaction and 
calm. So, too, with the animal kingdom ; so, too, with 
the stars, apparently strewn all over the heavens 
without order. His deepest nature craves not par- 
tial and mere superficial truths, but the great under- 
lying eternal truths. So, too, finally, and to come 
to the point, with his own species. At first, the 
fact of diversity and mutual hostility among men 
is accepted by man, and his actions are governed 
accordingly. To him a stranger tribe is a natural 
foe. A people living on the- other slope of a moun- 
tain range is a normal enemy. A man who speaks 
a different language or bears a different hue on his 
face is an antagonist. This view marks the begin- 
ning of man's education. It is not the essential 
truth. Dwelling in it, the race is in a state of unrest. 
But, starting thus low down among apparent diver- 
sity and want of order, man is to go up into rest by 
passing from what is apparent to what is real. And 
Masonry's great witness is to nothing which is true 
relatively, to no form of belief w T hich is fleeting, but 
it is to the absolute truth — the great fact of the unity 
and the brotherhood of man. She witnesses, there- 
fore, to what is in harmony with our profoundest 
instincts, and so her influence is calming wherever it 
is felt. A»d it is in that calm she gives, that she 
finds lasting friends, strength, and security against 
all successful attacks. 

IV. A fourth phenomenon is Masonry's fascina- 



16 

tion ; its strange hold at once npon men of mind and 
culture, and upon the ignorant and superficial. 
Christianity and the Bible are the only other like 
instances. How happens it that the shallow man 
can move pleased upon the surface and among the fair 
symbols of Masonry, and the profound man range at 
will and tireless in its depths ? Ye who despise 
Masonry, who regard it as a mere amusement for 
boys of larger growth, on what principle can you 
account for this ? So long as it attracts and holds 
all grades of mind, there must be something in it 
which is in harmony with the human mind in all its 
capacities. And not till you strike down that mind 
in its varying capacities can opposition avail to oblit- 
erate from the earth that universal thins: which is in 
harmony with all mental capacities. Masonry may 
cease to be, but it can never be murdered. 

'V. I must not draw to a close without at least 
alluding to the terrible charge that Masonry is infi- 
del in its tendencies. One sufficient answer to that 
charge is as follows, viz. : 

Freemasonry, so far as the Blue Lodge and 
the Chapter are concerned, is founded upon the 
Old Testament. It is full of the profoundest 
spiritual truths clothed in symbol and type. The 
Old Testament is founded upon the New Testa- 
ment ; that is to say, it is a meaningless mass 
unless explained by the New Testament. The sig- 
nification of all its types and prophecies and sym- 
bols and hidden things is given in the New Testa- 
ment. Finally, the New Testament rests upon 



17 

Christ. It is meaningless without him. I repeat, 
there stands the composite structure : Christ, as the 
great foundation ; resting upon Him, the New Testa- 
ment ; resting upon it the Old Testament ; resting 
upon that, Masonry. It all means one thing, or it 
all means nothing. Masonry hath its esoteric as well 
as its exoteric teaching. And he who has not found 
this great unity of meaning between Masonry, the 
Bible, and the Bible's one great Character, though he 
may admire Masonry, has failed to rise where he can 
look upon her true sublimity. He stands but in her 
outside, her exoteric courts. He has not gone into 
her great depths. It would be impossible for Mason- 
ry, founded on the Bible, not to mean the truths of 
the Bible : the fall of man, the ruined temple of his 
nature, his death from sin, the means of his resurrec- 
tion in the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the rebuilding 
of his ruined nature into a perfect tenrple, eternal in 
the heavens, and the great Corner-stone for that 
rebuilding. 

We are charged, my brethren and Most Worshrp- 
ful Sir, with being an institution infidel in its ten- 
dencies. It is a very serious charge. Coming as it 
does out of a portion of the Christian Church, it is 
doubly serious. If there were cause for the whole 
Christian Church to adopt it and act accordingly, 
we might tremble for the existence of Masonry. It 
is useless to deny or seek to soften this conclusion. 
For it takes but half an eye to see that Christianity 
is dominant, and is destined to ride on conquering 
and to conquer. Compare its power and its spread 
2 



IS 

in the world now with its condition eighteen hun- 
dred years ago. Look at its career. It is making 
captive, it is gradually absorbing, the whole world. 
Nothing has been able to withstand it, and nothing 
can withstand it. Before its advance every obstruc- 
tion breaks down under the pressure of its muscular 
arm. And I repeat, Most Worshipful Grand Master, 
were this charge just, and adopted by the whole 
Christian Church, then farewell to Masonry sooner 
or later. 

But if the charge be true, then how do you account 
for the additional phenomenon of the vast numbers 
of the Christian ministry who are Masons ? Are all 
these men duped ? No, Most Worshipful Sir ; they 
know what Christianity is, what are its profound 
doctrines of the Trinity, and the temple of human 
nature ruined and rebuilded, and the fall, and the 
Lion of Judah, and the plumb-line, and the resurrec- 
tion from the dead, and the white stone, and the Cor- 
ner-stone of the human temple, which was rejected 
because it did not square with man's notions, but 
was found by others and made the Head-stone of the 
corner ; they know very well how God taught the 
Jews by symbols and by types ; they know very well 
what it typifies to be covered with the skin of the 
Lamb without spot ; they know what the descend- 
ing fire from heaven was, and who was within 
the burning bush, and the Tri -unity that is within 
the vail ; and besides all thip, they know very well 
what is rationalistic or infidel in its tendencies. And 
as for this charge, that Masonry is infidel or rational- 



19 

istic in its tendencies, you might as well charge the 
Old Testament with being infidel in its tendencies. 
As for this foul charge, in the name of thousands of 
clergymen who are Masons, in the name of thousands 
upon thousands of intelligent Christian laymen who 
are Masons, in the name of the Most Worshipful 
Grand Lodge of the State of New York, and of the 
Masonic body in all the world, I pronounce it untrue, 
and cast it back into the face of Roman Catholicism 
with scorn and defiance. 

But why, it is asked, do we not, in Blue Lodge and 
Chapter, close our prayers with the name of Christ ? 
"There appears to be no difference between your 
prayers" (continues the objector) " and mere deistic 
prayers." This objection involves a longer discussion 
and explanation than I can enter into here, or than I 
am, perhaps, permitted to make known to the world. 
But I can, at least, ask our caviler one question in re- 
ply, which settles the whole matter. Do you find the 
name of Jesus Christ mentioned in all the Old Testa- 
ment ? But go you far enough in the Bible, and you 
will come upon that name. So, likewise, go you far 
enough in Masonry — and you will know just as much 
as Masons know. Prophesy is not fulfillment. The 
period of type and prophesy is not the period of anti- 
type and fulfillment. There are certain things which 
are of the purpose of Blue Lodge and Chapter, and 
certain things which are from their purpose. The 
" brother " in the dawning twilight of " The Lodge " 
and the " Companion " in the morning light of " The 
Chapter," each " awaits a time in patience " till the 



20 

noon-day breaks upon him in " The Encampment." 
Then all types find their antitypes, all prophecies 
their fulfillment. Thus Masonry so diffuses light, 
that it shall not dazzle or blind, but gradually illu- 
minate, till those " in the dimness" shall come to the 
perfect day of knowledge. Thus nmch for the world. 
Of you, my brethren, I would ask, does he who 
draws the Masonic sword take any obligation incon- 
sistent with the meaning of the grades in Lodge and 
Chapter through which he has already passed? 
Christianity is the antagonist of Rationalism and 
mere Deism. And Lodge and Chapter would be in- 
fidel to Christianity if in themselves they had no 
further teaching than of that God simply which the 
Deist and the Mohammedan holds ; if, in short, esoter- 
ically, they were not Christian in their teaching. If 
Lodge and Chapter have not this esoteric teaching, if 
Christian truths do not shine like diamonds through 
the crystal casket of her symbols and mechanism, 
then what must follow ? It must follow inevitably 
that the military degrees in Encampment would be 
compelled to draw the sword and turn back upon 
the Blue and the Chapter degrees for their destruc- 
tion, and so Masonry, in its three great stages, would 
present the horrible spectacle of a monster which 
had taken antagonistic oaths, and which was under 
the most solemn obligations to accomplish its own 
suicide. No ; the Knight is not the foe, but the illu- 
minated brother of the " Master Mason " and the 
" Companion." 
To conclude, then. Suited to all ages, because her 



21 

truth is absolute ; suited to all peoples and nations, 
because she belongs to man; suited to every religion, 
because her " light " so dawns, as to enlighten without 
blinding the lowest, and cheer the way of each up 
to the highest ; enduring and calm, because her wit- 
ness is to the eternal truth of the brotherhood of man ; 
fascinating; the unlettered and commandino- the re- 
spect and admiration of the profound, her root run- 
ning down through the Bible and spreading abroad 
below in Christ, her branches cover the world, her 
fruit partakes of the rich juices from Christ, and 
drops everywhere for the weal of man. 



22 



ESOTERIC MASONRY. 



In order that I may not be misunderstood in the 
fifth section of the above address, let me here dis- 
tinctly state that I do not claim that Freemasonry is 
the Christian Church, or that it is one of the' Christian 
sects. It makes no pretensions to be either the one 
or the other. Its symbolic references to the Holy 
Ghost are very few, and it has no sacraments. Chris- 
tianity goes within to the heart, and works outward 
toward the conduct. If the man loves aright, he will 
do right. It thus breaks the chain of law, and wipes 
out written codes for the guidance of man. Masonry 
does not infringe upon this principle of action ; does 
not in any sense usurp the throne, assume the duties, 
or preclude the necessity of the Church. On the 
other hand, Masonry binds the chain of law, for as 
yet the world is not all Christian, and all chains can- 
not be broken ; nor is Christendom all Christian ; 
nor are all Christians — I may almost say, nor is any 
Christian — as yet made perfect by the supreme sway 
of love within. The twilight of the dispensation of 
law stretches into the domain of the dispensation of 
love. This gives its sanction and its mission to 
Masonry throughout Christendom as well as through- 
out Heathendom. 



23 

Besides, while the Christian Church can hold only 
Christians, Masonry is so marvelously constructed 
that she can include all who believe in a God, and 
can do so without violence to Christian sentiment. 
This is her use and her glory. For she holds them, 
not to confirm any in such partial views as they 
may have, not to leave them partly in light and 
partly in shadow; she holds them for advancement 
to better and better views, till at last the very best 
are reached. He who sees not this, knows not 
what the " Masonic light " is, and falls into the 
error of calling that "light" darkness. Masonry's 
mission is to shed illumination till all shadows of 
religious error are removed. 

I claim that Masonry is universal in her embrace 
of men ; and that, therefore, she does not and cannot 
exclude any class of believers in God : that she does 
not, above all things, shut out from her gates the very 
highest and most advanced type of man — namely, 
the modern enlightened Christian man. If she did, 
she would be partial, not universal ; she would be 
effete, not fresh ; she would be decrepit, with her 
grave lying not far before her. I claim that she 
would not shut out from her precincts her own patron, 
the beloved Saint John the Evangelist. If she did 
not include Christian truths in her symbolism, she 
would (being merely deistic in her teachings), 
exclude the conscientious Christian man. I claim that 
she is so universal in her embrace of men, that she 
belongs to all time prior to the Millenium ; and that, 
therefore, she does not declare herself hostile to the 



24 

deepest and best thought of time — to those Christian 
dogmas, namely, which are " the fruit of twenty cen- 
turies of profound reflection," ripened under the grace 
and inspiration of God. I claim such universality for 
Masonry as her glory. With it, she is powerful; 
without it, she becomes poor, miserable, and very 
weak. 

Furthermore, I do not merely claim that Masonry 
is not antagonistic to Christian light, but I claim 
that she positively sheds that light (to those whose 
eyes can bear it) out of every one of her types and 
symbols ; that she hath an esoteric as well as an exo- 
teric teaching ; and that that esoteric teaching is and 
has always been regarded as Christian. 

For this is no private theory of my own. Its cor- 
rectness rests not on my poor authority. It is true, 
as I studied Masonry, advancing step by step, it was 
without guide that I entered her inmost shrine. Un- 
aware that others had been there before me, I moved 
with awe and reverence in her golden Holy of Ho- 
lies ; and, at last, I came forth and timidly told of 
what I had seen. But, lo ! I found that years, cen- 
turies ago, it had all been shouted from the house- 
tops. I had not created an esoteric meaning for Ma- 
sonry ; I had but discovered that she had such a mean- 
ing. Then Masonry, lovely before, became to me 
sublime. 

I proceed now to give corroborative testimony to 
the truth of what is claimed above, and in the fifth 
section of my address. 



25 

a. d. 1820. 

The following extract is from a work ( " Spirit of 
Masonry") published under the sanction and appro- 
bation of the Grand Lodge of England, nearly a 
half century ago, viz. : 

" The knowledge of the God of nature forms the 
first estate of our profession; the worship of the 
Deity under the Jewish law is described in the 
second stej) of Masonry ; and the Christian dispensa- 
tion is distinguished in the last and highest order." 

a. d. 590. 

The following is from book four, section two, of 
" Preston's Illustrations :" 

" About the year of our Lord 590, the Picts and 
Scots," says the annalist, " continued their depreda- 
tions with unrestrained vigor, till the arrival of 
some pious teachers from Wales and Scotland ; 
when, many of these savages being reconciled to 
Christianity, Masonry got into repute." 

a. d. 1825. 

The author of " The Antiquities of Masonry " and 
of " The Star in the East," George Oliver, Vicar of 
Clee, who was for years W.\ M.\ of one of the Eng- 
lish Lodges, in defending Freemasonry, writes as fol- 
lows, viz. : 

" As its instructions proceed, we learn that our 



26 

groundwork is sanctified by the efficacy of Three 
Religious Offerings, which are typical of the great 
sacrifice of Atonement by Jesus Christ ; and that our 
splendid canopy contains a LETTER of the most 
extensive reference and the most comprehensive 
meaning. The elevation in the Third Degree refers 
to the resurrection from the dead; and this is a 
clear admission of the reality of a future state, 
because, if there be no future state, there can be no 
resurrection. Our solemn dedications and consecra- 
tions speak the same language, and they are irre- 
fragable evidences of the intimate connection which 
subsists between Masonry and religion. If we pro- 
ceed another step, the evidence becomes stronger. 
The order of the Royal Arch is founded exclusively 
on religion. The degree is purely religious, and 
includes little but what is connected with the love 
and worship of God, and the wise and genial regula- 
tions of Divine Providence for the benefit of man. 
The very tests are founded on the fall of Adam, and 
the consequent degradation of the human race, 
enforced by the salutary promise of their future 
restoration through the intercession of a Mediator. 
If this be not religion, if this be not Christianity, 
what is it V 

Again, he says, in speaking of the Templars : 

" Every Knight was necessarily a Mason, and no 
one was eligible for the dignity of the golden spur 
but he who had been prepared by a previous initia- 
tion into the three degrees of Masonry. This is a 



27 

strong collateral proof of the ancient alliance 
between Masonry and religion ; for these high- 
minded men, who had nothing in view but the 
extension of Christianity, evinced their reverence 
for Masonry as a religious system by making it a 
sine qua non with all who aspired to admission into 
their honorable body. Amidst the enthusiastic 
spirit and sacred feelings which animated these 
champions of Christianity, they would scarcely have 
shown such a distinguished predilection for any sys- 
tem founded on a basis which excluded religion." 



a. d. 1686. 

In the short reign of King James II., A. D. 1686, 
a manuscript was written which is now preserved in 
the Lodge of Antiquity, England. It contains the 
following passages : 



" Every man that is a Mason, take good heed to 
these charges, we pray ; that if a man find himself 
guilty of any of these charges, that he may amend 
himself, or principally for dread of God, <fcc, &C 
The first charge is, that ye shall he true men to God 
and to the holy church, and to use no error or heresy 
by your understanding and by wise men's teaching." 
And after enumerating more than twenty charges, 
it concludes thus : " These be all the charges and 
covenants that ought to be read at an instalment of 
a Master, or making of a Freemason or Freemasons. 
The Almighty God of Jacob, who ever have you 



28 

and me in His keeping, bless us now and ever, 
Anien." 

a. d. 1480. 

An ancient Masonic manuscript, written about the 
end of the fifteenth century, and published in the Gen- 
tlemen's Magazine for June, 1815, commences in the 
following manner : 

u The might of the Father of Kings, with the wis- 
dom of His glorious grace, through the grace of the 
goodness of the Holy Ghost, there bene three per- 
sons in one Godheade, be with us at our beginning, 
and give us grace so to governe us here in this mor- 
tall life liveing, that we may come to his kingdome 
that never shall have endinge." 

The above gives the Esoteric meaning of the 
three thrones that govern the Lodge, the three raps, 
the three greater lights, the three lesser lights, the 
triple substituted *** — *** — *** the triplicity which 
becomes — as every Royal Arch Mason knows — 
more involved as we go up in the Chapter, and 
which is no longer Esoteric, but becomes Exoteric in 
the Encampment. 



a. d. 1772. 

The Rev. James Hart, in a sermon preached at 
Durham, in the year 1772, says : " Masonry is founded 
on that sure rock, against which let the waves and 



29 

billows of temporal persecution never so strongly 
dash, it will stand erect and secure, because that rock 
is Christ.- 1 

a. d. 1794. 

In an address on Masonry, delivered near the close 
of the last century, Bro.\ the Rev. James Watson, of 



Lancaster 



says: 



" Masonry has the Omnipotent Architect of the 
Universe for the object of its adoration and imitation ; 
His great and wonderful works for its pattern and 
prototype ; and the wisest and best of men of all 
ages, nations, and languages for its patrons and pro- 
fessors. But though Masonry primarily inculcates 
morals and the religion of nature, it has caught an 
additional spark from the light of revelation and the 
Sun of Righteousness. And though Masonry con- 
tinues to burn with subordinate lustre, it lights the 
human traveller on the same road ; it breathes a con- 
cordant spirit of universal benevolence and brotherly 
love, adds one thread more to the silken cord of evan- 
gelical charity which binds man to man, aud crowns 
the cardinal virtues with Christian graces. The three 
degrees of Masonry seem to have an obvious and apt 
coincidence with the three progressive stages of man- 
kind, from the creation to the end of time. The first 
is emblematical of man's state of nature, from his 
first disobedience to the time of God's covenant with 
Abraham, and the establishment of the Jewish econ- 
omy. The second, from that period to the era of 



30 

the last, full, and perfect revelation from Heaven to 
mankind, made by our Great Redeemer. The third, 
comprehending the glorious interval of the Christian 
dispensation down to the consummation of all 
thing's." 



a. d. 1814. 

In the early part of this century, Bro.\ William 
Hutchinson, in speaking to the world . of Masonry, 

says : 

" It is not to be presumed that we are a set of men 
professing religious principles contrary to the reve. 
lations and doctrines of the Son of God ; reverencing 
a Deity by the denomination of the God of nature, 
and denying that mediation which is graciously 
offered to all true believers. The members of our 
Society at this day, in the third stage of Masonry, 
confess themselves to be Christians; the veil of the 
temple is rent, the builder is smitten, and we are 
raised from the tomb of transgression. Ths Master 
Mason represents a man under the Christian doctrine, 
saved from the grave of iniquity, and raised to the 
faith of salvation." 



FROM AN ENTERED APPRENTICE LECTURE. 

The following is an extract from an E.\ A.\ Lec- 
ture in a Manual published under the approval and 



31 

sanction of the Grand Lodge of England, early in 
the present century, viz. : 

Speaking of the blazing star : — " We may apply 
this emblem to still more religious import : it repre- 
sents the star which led the wise men to Bethlehem ; 
proclaimed to mankind the nativity of the Son of 
Grod; and here conducting our spiritual progress to 
the author of our redemption." 

a. d. 1820. 
From a M.\ M.\ Lecture as read in English Lodges : 

" The sprig of Acacia points to that state of moral 
obscurity to which the world was reduced previously 
to the appearance of Christ upon earth : when the 
reverence and adoration due to the Divinity was buried 
in the filth and rubbish of the world; when religion sat 
mourning in sackcloth and ashes, and morality was 
scattered to the four winds of heaven. In order that 
mankind might be preserved from this deplorable 
estate of darkness and destruction, and as the old law 
was dead and become rottenness, a new doctrine and 
new precepts were wanting to give the hey to salva- 
tion, in the language of which we might touch the 
ear of an offended Deity and bring forth hope for 
eternity. True religion was fled ; those who sought 
her through the wisdom of the antients were not able 
to raise her ; she eluded the grasp, and their polluted 
hands were stretched forth in vain for her restoration. 
Those who sought her by the old law were frustrated, 



32 

for death had stepped between, and corruption had 
defiled the embrace ; sin had beset her steps, and the 
vices of the world had overwhelmed her. The Great 
Father of all, commiserating the miseries of the world, 
sent His only Son, who was innocence itself, to teach 
the doctrine of salvation ; by whom mem was kaired 
from the death of sin unto a life of righteousness ; 
from the tomb of corruption unto the chambers of 
hope ; from the darkness of despair to the celestial 
beams of faith ; and not only working for us this 
redemption, but making with us the covenant of 
regeneration, whence we become the children of God 
and inheritors of the realms of heaven." 



a. d. 1825. 

In speaking of the Esoterics of Masonry, the author 
of the " Antiquities of Masonry " says : 

"Masonry, like all other sciences, cannot be 
attained without assiduous and diligent labor ; for the 
signs and tokens of external communication are but 
the keys of the cabinet in which all our valuable 
knowledge is stored up. * * * * Initiation, 
without subsequent research, is an acquisition which 
can scarcely be pronounced desirable ; but he who 
uses the keys of our treasure with freedom, fervency \ 
and zeal / or, in the language of Masonry, he who 
keeps them highly polished with chalk, charcoal, and 
clay will find a precious jewel at every step he takes ; 
and while he presses on with ardor in the pursuit of 



33 

knowledge and virtue, he may be certain of attaining 
the rich prize he has in view." — Star in the East, pp. 
160,161. 

a. d. 1862. 

Mackay, in his celebrated Manual, bears the fol- 
lowing testimony; the extract is under M.\ M.\ D.\, 
Sec. 2, p. 102 : 

" The small hill near Mount Moriah can be clearly 
identified by the most convincing analogies as being 
no other than Mount Calvary. Thus, Mount Calvary 
was a small hill ; it was situated in a 'westerly direc- 
tion from the Temple, and near Mount Moriah ; it 
was on the direct road from Jerusalem to Joppa, and 
is thus the very spot where a iveary brother, travel- 
ing on that road, would find it convenient to sit down 
to rest and refresh himself / it was outside of the gate 
of the Temple ; and, lastly, there are several caves, 
or clefts in the rocks, iu the neighborhood, one of 
which, it will be remembered, was, subsequently to 
the time of this tradition, used as the sepulchre of our 
Lord. The Christian Mason will readily perceive the 
peculiar character of the symbolism which this iden- 
tification of the spot on which the great truth of the 
resurrection xoas unfolded in both systems — the Ma- 
sonic and the Christian — must suggest" 

With one more extract from the work entitled 
" The Star in the East," I conclude, viz. : 
3 



34 

"The genius of Masonry can assimilate with no 
other religion so completely as with Christianity. 
The historical part of its lectures bears an undoubted 
reference to our pure religion ; and this coincidence 
is so remarkably striking, that it would almost con- 
vince an unprejudiced mind, that Masonry was 
formed as an exclusive companion for Christianity. 
The strength of this testimony is increased by the 
nature and tendency of its symbolical instruction, by 
the peculiar cast of its morality, and by the very 
extraordinary nature of its allegorical mechanism ; 
extraordinary on any other principle than with a ref- 
erence to Christianity.' 1 



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